In this time-slip novel Charlotte goes back in time to her grandfather’s childhood and the time of the first astronauts landing on the moon in 1969. Her grandfather, Keith, is currently living in a care facility and has severe dementia. He doesn’t know her and she hates to visit, feeling she has lost the grandfather she loves.
Currently staying with her grandmother in the school holidays, Charlotte is sleeping in the room that was her father’s and her grandfather’s before him. She finds a ‘treasure’ box containing yellowing newspaper clippings and a tattered St Kilda football jersey. When she puts on the sweater, she suddenly finds herself in the same room in 1969 with a 10-year-old Keith wondering who she is and how she got there.
As Charlotte slips backwards and forwards in time at will, she discovers she can change the past. Also that this is a way of unlocking Grandpa’s memory of his childhood. Together with a new friend and the staff of the home, she throws a moon birthday party which results in her grandfather and her watching a TV event that captures the world’s attention.
The constant moving to and fro in time, changing incidents in Grandpa’s childhood with repercussions in the present, is challenging. However, the quality of the writing, the well-drawn characters and historical research underpinning the plot are all excellent qualities.
Reviewed by Lynne Babbage
Age Guide 8+
Read an interview with the author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Ciddor has been fascinated by the past for as long as she can remember. Even as a child, she spent hours immersing herself in research, digging out the tiniest details so she could imagine being a person living in the olden days. As an adult she has successfully turned this passion into a career, but nowadays, she is just as likely to mine for details in her own childhood, creating stories out of the strange, intriguing and totally different world of the 1960s!
Anna’s work has won her many accolades, including the Nance Donkin Award for Children’s Literature, a grant from the Australia Council, Notable Book awards from the Children’s Book Council of Australia, and shortlistings for numerous other awards. Some of her best-loved books include Runestone, 52 Mondays and The Boy Who Stepped Through Time.
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